Literacy news

Learning to listen

1 Jun 2004

For many years it's been clear to early years practitioners that, in an increasingly noise-filled world, children's listening skills are being steadily eroded. Television, video and computer games now fill homes with daylong noise. Shared family mealtimes, once a daily opportunity for conversational speaking and listening, have given way to television-dominated grazing. Nowadays, even the pushchairs face outwards, so parents don't even chat to their children as they wheel them down the road; but with the level of traffic noise these days, would the children hear anyway? Gradually, and scarcely without noticing it has happened, our society has stopped teaching its children how to listen.

It is, therefore, extremely important that, as soon as possible, we make learning to listen (and its counterpart, learning to speak) a major focus of attention.

Discrimination of sounds

Many children need help in the most basic listening skill of all - discriminating a foreground sound against background noise. It's hugely important, therefore, that as soon as children arrive in a pre-school setting, we provide activities (e.g. 'Dodgems', where moving children are given a sound to listen out for such as clapping, which is the signal for 'start' and 'stop') to help them develop this essential skill. Once able to signal out significant sound, children must learn to discriminate and attend to a widening range of auditory information, through plenty of musical activities, 'listening walks' and games (e.g. Spot the sound). The ability to listen discriminately is vital if children are to achieve the fine discrimination between speech sounds for clear articulation and phonological awareness.

Social listening

Listening to one-to-one conversations involves making frequent eye contact with the speaker. However, many children these days find it difficult to make eye contact, perhaps because in homes where television is constantly switch on, people look at the screen rather than each other. Other specific social skills include: attending to the speaker (e.g. focusing, not fidgeting, ignoring distractions - gradually building up attention span); remembering and responding to what is said, and turn-taking. Activities to improve social listening include 'Circle time' and 'Here's looking at you, kid', where the teacher uses eye contact rather than words as a selection device, for instance, when it's time for the children to get their coats to go home.

Developing aural attention span

Listening games and activities should aim at the gradual and incremental development of children's aural attention span. Activities include 'Sausages' where the teacher chooses a favourite story book and selects a word that appears frequently, explaining to the children that they must listen carefully for the chosen word and each time they hear it, shout 'sausages'.

One important element in encouraging children to listen is to ensure that what you have to say is worth listening to! Over-exposure of your voice for behaviour management or organisation can lead some children to switch off. Look for ways of substituting other modes of communication wherever possible, for instance, instead of using your voice to attract children's attention, devise a physical signal such as holding one arm in the air, and ask children to respond by quietly signalling back.

Developing auditory memory

While developing aural attention span helps children to attend and concentrate, developing auditory memory helps them to learn. At all stages, but particularly in the early years, auditory memory seems to be bound up with kinesthetic learning, and among the first sequences of sound children learn are rhythmic chants. From as early as possible, attention should be paid to helping children keep a steady beat and every opportunity should be taken to use action rhymes and songs as a medium for learning.

Other activities to improve auditory memory include 'Ted's walk' where the teacher makes up a short story about Ted (or another favourite soft toy) going for a walk. Start off by setting the scene, for example, 'One bright sunny day, Ted decided to go for a walk. He walking down the road towards the shops and first thing he saw was...'. Each child chooses one thing that Ted saw. When everyone has had a turn, see how many thing the children can recall.

(From Foundations of Literacy: a balanced approach to language, listening and literacy skills in the early years, Sue Palmer and Ros Bayley, Network Educational Press Ltd, 2004. To order contact Network Education Press Ltd; Tel. 01785 225515)

Tags: Talk To Your Baby

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